Just when we all think the Sox have dug themselves out of the grave, and that they would be OK, and if they won last night’s game, against one of the worst teams in baseball, they would actually be at .500 for the first time this year…

Instead, this morning finds the Boston Red Sox are again DEAD LAST in the AL East, behind team they were supposed to beat last night, with a .435 record, which is IDENTICAL to the freaking Washington Nationals….

Holy Buckets, this is revolting….

Yeah, Yeah, I know…I said yesterday that I was starting to get that “When Josh Beckett is on the mound, I am expecting to win” feeling again….

To be fair, Beckett didn’t do too bad, giving up 4 runs on 7 hits in his 6 innings of work. He only threw 92 pitches (65 for strikes) striking out 4 and walking none. But the homer monster finally reared its ugly head twice at the only Red Sox starter not to have given up any to date…

Then Tim Wakefield came in and threw a perfect inning, striking out 1, keeping the Sox in the game, which is always great to see…

And then Kevin Youkilis’ towering 3-run shot to left tied the score in the 8th inning–and I had hope the Sox would get it going and squeak out the win…

And then Daniel Bard came in to give up the game winning run–and racked up his THIRD loss of the season, which is pretty exceptional since he is a RELIEVER, and the Sox are only 23 games. At this rate, he is on pace to have to 0-21 before the season concludes….UGH…

While there were no errors in the official scoring–there was a lot of fielding yukiness last night, most notably in the 4th inning when Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury did the “I thought you had it, no, I thought YOU had it” waltz, which ended up with the ball falling between the 2 of them. Adding to that the passed balls, and wild pitch, and mixed signals, this game was just one of those clusters….

And we all noticed Rem-Dawg was not in the booth last night with DO, having a terrible head-cold. Filling in was former Oreo catcher Rick Dempsey, whom I was less than impressed with…perhaps that is all they could come up with on short notice?

Coming up: Jon Lester takes to the mound to hopefully stop this skid, and prevent the Sox from being swept. And if anyone can do that, its Lester, who owns the Cookies (13-0 with a 2.33 ERA in 16 starts in his career) like Pedro owned Seattle. He is opposed by Brad Bergesen, who isn’t super successful against the Sox (2-3 with a 3.32 in 6 career starts) 1st pitch 7:05pm…